


Where it decays

by SakuraPain



Category: Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: but an inspired swampy mess, light violence or wounds, spooky stuff, this is gonna be a mess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:53:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23418553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SakuraPain/pseuds/SakuraPain
Summary: Something is wrong with Scar's giant crystal.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 97





	1. Crystal therapy gone wrong

**Author's Note:**

  * For [iamsolarflare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamsolarflare/gifts).



“Just texture the columns” That’s what Grian asked him to do. Nothing more!

But he decided to take it one step further and he wasn’t sure where it ended up going. 

Magical crystals were his specialty this season, he was studying hard on their magic and on their effects, they were made to help who held them. So making a giant one should have technically helped the land around or the creeper farm underground. 

Scar wasn’t sure what this thing was doing. 

The crystal was surrounded by the columns and the little island underneath it was lush and full of life, even too much life seen how many monsters spawned on it. He went to bed the night after completing it and when he woke up the island wasn’t there anymore.

Everything decayed, the plants dead and rotten, mushrooms and moss starting to spread on the columns, the water surrounding everything had become murky and dark. Nothing was alive or could be alive there.

Grian complimented Scar, it looked cool even if he didn’t expect him to go in that direction, but Scar had nothing to do with it! He didn’t understand. Maybe the crystal was somewhat sick? Could crystals get some sort of flu? 

Holding up his tiny health crystal he could feel its powers radiate through his arm, maybe he could fix it.

He flew up and landed next to the shining green crystal, he just needed to help it heal and everything would be fine, just channel the healing powers from the small crystal to the big one, nothing too difficult for a mighty wizard like him! He hoped so at least. 

He hesitantly placed his open palm on the giant crystal as he held the healing crystal in his other hand.

It didn’t really react at first, maybe the crystal didn’t want to be helped? Was it fighting back the healing?

Scar removed his hand and took a deep breath. He just needed to be clearer with the crystal, show who’s boss! He can’t have the jungle rotting away because this thing thinks it doesn’t need healing. 

He placed his palm on the cold surface again and tried to let the healing magic travel to it. It still didn’t want any of it. 

Why?

He leaned on the crystal, pressing his forehead on it. 

“Crystal speak to me.” He asked. 

Light shined before his eyes and-- 

**_The slow_ ** **_decay_ ** **_._ **

**_The end of all things, the end of you of them. The suffocating mist seeping into your bones, into your mind._ **

**_A rip in the world hiding the eyes, watching and_ ** **_waiting _ ** **_for everything to fall back to it._ **

**_Something_ ** **_primordial_ ** **_._ **

  
  


Scar scrambled away from the crystal, wheezing for air and shaking. 

That- that was  _ something _ . Something he didn’t want to see again

He felt a sharp pain in his hand and finally looked to see his blood dripping off his palm. The health crystal had completely shattered, now dark and completely hollowed out of his proprieties. 

Maybe the mighty wizard needed to ask for help. 

After he got the shards out of his hand. 

  
  
  



	2. From glass to dust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will I be able to write the next chapter in less than 6 months? Who knows! Enjoy while it's here

_ Click, Click, Click.  _

It echoes, it rings in his ears. Rhythmic and unnerving.

One of the few details still clear in this memory. Not where, not when, not the face of his host but that sound. The damp air, the soft and humid surface of the moss he was sitting on, the light weight of something placed in his hands. 

A gift.

A boney texture. Moss covering its edges and bringing it all together around a single  _ precious  _ crystal. 

He can drop it, sure,  _ he  _ would never force him to take something he doesn’t want. But it will be back in his hands the instant he wants it again. He knows. 

**“You can take this as an..** **_invitation_ ** **.”**

  
  


Tempting sure, but that wasn’t the time to accept the invite yet. Still too much to do, to explore, to create. 

He lets the gift fall. For now. 

  
  
  


The sound of the communicator buzzing beside his bed woke him up. Messages appearing on the tiny screen. 

Oh? He needed to go check on a friend. 

  
  


\----

  
  


Scar tapped his foot anxiously as he passed his new health crystal from a hand to the other. He felt the sting from pain whenever the crystal touched the bandages on his left hand but barely paid any mind to it, he kept his eyes focused on the murky waters surrounding the giant crystal and thought about his options. 

The crystal was… weird. Dangerous, but he wasn’t sure how much. The decay wasn’t really spreading past the lake for now. Still, he didn’t want to take the chance since Larry was just a few meters away from the shore, and having the entire jungle die would be a  _ problem _ .

Healing it was a big no. It didn’t  _ want  _ to heal.

He thought about destroying it, but he couldn't. Just the  _ thought _ made him feel nauseous. A horrible feeling at the start of his stomach. Maybe it was just his guts telling him that the crystal could probably do to him what it had done to the little crystal he was trying to use on it. 

He paced back and forth on the lakeshore for a while, avoiding to look up at the shiny green stone floating at the center of the monoliths. 

_ How silly _ he thought. 

He was getting so nervous around it that he didn’t want to look at it!  _ It’s just a big magic rock throwing a kinda deadly temper tantrum Scar! You can deal with it! _

Well, maybe he could deal with it with some help. 

Not sure of  _ how  _ anyone could help with this but better than trying alone again. He wasn’t sure who to call, so he called everyone that felt like coming to see what was going on. 

He picked up his communicator and stared blankly at the chat. Cub and X seemed to be busy right now but Tango said he’d come and take a look. Maybe some admin commands could get rid of the crystal? Or at least make sure nothing else could start rotting.

Scar felt a chill creep its way up to his spine. 

He finally looked up at the crystal floating in the air. 

The decay was probably something manageable but what the crystal showed to him was something- someone? Someone else. The crystal was not connected to him like all the other smaller ones were, it was connected to whoever that was. 

Scar nervously tapped his fingers on the side of his leg as he felt a bit of nausea starting to rise in his throat. Suddenly he wanted to go and hide far away, maybe he could just move to the desert with Cub and stop trying to be a magician. 

But he couldn’t give up so easily, could he?

He let out a shaky breath and kept tapping his fingers. 

“So, the spooky aesthetic wasn’t intentional?”    
  
Scar jumped away from his friend in surprise letting the health crystal fall off his hand. He didn't hear any rockets firing or steps coming from behind himself so he was caught completely off guard.

He turned around to see Grian chuckling lightly. 

“I gave you all those compliments but you didn’t say anything about the murder crystal!” He said jokingly, leaning in closer to Scar. 

The wizard smiled lightly before retrieving the small crystal from the ground, closing his hand tightly around it and pushing it into his robe pockets. 

“Did you sneak your way here just to scare me?”

“Maybe,” Grian replied with a wink. Scar laughed, pushing his hands deeper into his pockets. 

Grian moved to the side a little and looked up at the crystal. Scar didn't, tapping nervously his foot on the ground and facing the jungle and Larry.

"It doesn't look too bad honestly if it doesn't go further." 

"if." Scar remarked, "I don't know what it wants to do, maybe it's gonna stop and be happy like this or maybe it's gonna get worse. I tried talking with it and it… it wasn't nice."

Scar felt the coldness of the mist seep into his bones again. The eyes on the other side of the crystal staring at his back now.

He didn't realize how tense he'd become until he realized his hand hurt from keeping it closed too tight. 

He let go and tried to shake it off when he saw Grian looking back at him now, frowning. 

"Wait, is the crystal alive?" 

"Alive and kinda finicky, I tried to stop it from making everything rot and it made my health crystal explode." Scar replied taking his left hand out of his pocket and giving Grian a small wave with it. 

Grian cringed slightly at the sight of the bandaged hand. 

He gave one last look at the crystal then turned around, putting a hand on Scar's shoulder. 

"Why don't we wait for the others inside Larry's shell? You seem tired." 

Scar nodded. Not looking at the crystal was probably the best idea for now. 

  
  


Grian got up first and immediately made his way into Scar's kitchen, meanwhile, the wizard stopped and stared at the doorless entrance. Did he really steal his door again? He rolled his eyes and sat at the kitchen table, putting his elbows on it and resting his face on his right hand. 

"These door bandits are getting a little out of control, don't you think?" He said trying to sound oblivious of the other's shenanigans. Tapping his fingers to the side of his cheek. 

Grian tilted his head to the side as he reached for Scar's cookie jar and got a few out. "Yeah, they're the worst!" He took a bite off one. "I mean, who steals  _ doors? _ That's ridiculous!" 

Scar chuckled and reached to grab a few cookies himself, Grian tilted the jar in his direction. 

"Luckily, I got a vault full of them." He said before starting to eat too. 

"Isn't a vault a bit too much for a few doors?" Grian asked as he sat down too, putting the jar on the table between them. 

Scar kept quietly munching on his cookie, looking at an undefined spot on the table.

"I don't keep only doors in it." 

  
  


A light knocking caught their attention. Tango stood at the entrance of the snail house, smiling brightly. 

“I heard you needed a bit of admin magic!” 

  
  


\---

The magic crystal issue seemed to have attracted a lot more attention than Scar would have anticipated, not that he didn’t expect his friends to come and help him with the situation but he knew that most couldn’t really do anything with this.

He was the one who meddled with magic crystals and sometimes vex magic and the only result he got was nightmare fuel and a light wound. Most of his friends didn’t play around with other kinds of magic as far as he knew but they still came to check in anyway. 

Along with Tango, Impulse and Zedaph had arrived, chatting lightly as they walked around on the little island underneath the crystal meanwhile Tango went up the monolith to work with his commands and see if he could do anything. 

Scar heard Zedaph talk about things he would have tried to do with the crystal if was in his cave of contraption, list included “Extrazombiflying capsule” which he  _ didn’t _ want to find out what it was supposed to do in and how it should have worked in Zedaph’s mind. 

Scar felt the need to tell him not to touch the crystal, just as a precaution, but he saw him tap the crystal a few times anyway. He didn't drop dead so it was  _ probably _ fine.

Stress and Mumbo arrived together, they apparently met on the way in the jungle and decided to walk and chat the rest of the way to the crystal. Mumbo almost ignored the crystal completely as he saw a particularly cute mushroom and stopped to look at it. Stress was as amazed as him but still gave an enthusiastic wave to Scar and Grian before crouching down to get a better look at the mushroom. 

Scar choked back a small laugh, meanwhile, Grian went to fetch the two. They made him stop to look at the mushroom as well. 

This was a strangely cheerful scene considering the reason why he called them here, it made him feel a bit calmer. 

He started to tap his fingers on the small crystal in his pocket again before looking up at the shiny green problem at the center of the lake. He didn’t keep his gaze on it for too long, moving it to watch Tango on the monolith next to it. 

Scar could see him dangle his legs off the ledge and stare at his comm’s small screen with a rather lost expression. He wasn't as used to deal with bugs and problems as Xisuma was and this was a weird problem to deal with, to begin with. 

Joe wandered in at some point, appearing seemingly out of nothing and arriving under the crystal, startling Impulse that was too intent in shouting something to Tango to notice him, Zedaph had a good laugh at that. 

  
It was a fun scene but Scar was starting to feel a bit uneasy with the number of people around the gem, he was about to ask them to get a bit farther away from it when he heard the thud of someone landing close.

He turned to see Iskall a few steps away, bionic eye making a quiet buzzing sound as it focused on Scar. 

“Hallo!” He said with a cheerful voice, stepping closer to Scar. 

“Hey,” Scar replied with a tired smile, turning to look again at the people under the crystal. No one dropped dead still, this is  _ fine _ . He can calm down.

“So that’s your problem child,” Iskall said, looking up at the gem and putting his hands in his hoodie’s pocket. 

“I guess you can call it that, It seems… calm for now.” He replied looking at the stone, feeling again as if someone was staring back at him from the other side.

The air got tense as he stiffened slightly at the sensation, no one seemed to have this same reaction, the gang under the crystal was still talking animatedly same as the others next to the  _ adorable little mushroom _ . Scar took a sharp breath, tapping on the side of the gem in his pocket and then looking back at Iskall. He seemed to have noticed his sudden tenseness because he looked a bit worried. 

“it looks like iskallium, you know?” He said suddenly.

“Uhm?” Scar raised an eyebrow. 

“Iskallium is my own gem, so if it keeps causing trouble I can scold it and it will have to listen to me!” He declared with a big smile on his face. “It’s science!”

“I wouldn’t try that.” Scar chuckled lightly. “You don’t fix magic problems with science, especially if it needs you scolding the rock that has been having deadly temper tantrums”

“Trying wouldn’t hurt.” 

Scar avoided telling him that, yes, it would. His hand was proof of that. 

The clicking rhythmic sound of his nails against the gem helped his nerves a little as he saw Tango literally lean on the crystal as he typed in something in his comm. Why was everyone so careless around that thing--

“Scar.” 

“Uhn? what?”

“Why are you doing that?” 

Scar frowned and looked back at his friend, he looked slightly worried again. 

“Doing what?” He asked confused, tilting his head a bit. 

“The clicking.” 

Clicking? oh. 

Now that he thought about it he had been a bit extra fidgety since the crystal started being a problem, tapping his fingers and bouncing his leg. 

“I guess I’m just a bit nervous, sorry.” He murmured taking his hands out of his pockets, only to find that he was starting to tap his feet instead. 

Uh. 

Scar made the effort to stay still for a moment but found it really difficult, his hands twitching slightly. 

He wasn’t  _ that _ shaken, was he?

Scar pulled the health crystal out of his pocket and closed his eyes, he took a deep breath and tried to channel the gem’s properties on himself. The magic flowing through him felt like warm water taking away some of the tension he was feeling, making the wound on his hand hurt less and…

_ Click, Click, Click. _

Scar’s eyes snapped open. His nails clicked against the glassy surface of the crystal and he couldn’t control it. He felt the fog seep into his body again, the person on the other side of the crystal staring down at him. What did that thing put into his head?

“I-- I’m not doing it on purpose.” 

He was about to shove his hand back into his pockets to at least quiet down the sound when iskall gestured him to stop and took Scar’s hand in his. Looking down at the finger’s movements. 

“Listen.” 

Scar frowned and stared at Iskall for a moment, he looked extremely concentrated on the sound. He started paying more attention to his involuntary tapping as well even if he wasn't sure what he was supposed to hear. 

_ Click, Click, Click. _

There was a specific rhythm to the tapping, he tried and couldn’t change it. One slow tap, two fast, two slow, one fast,  _ repeat _ . 

One slow. Click.

Two fast.  _ Click, Click _ .

Two slow. Click, Click.

One fast.  _ Click _ .

Repeat. 

_ Wait _ .

“ _ Morse? _ ” He asked. Iskall nodded. 

Why in the world was he tapping  _ morse _ . Maybe he could go fetch some of his old stuff from area77, Doc  _ did  _ give him a little paper sheet with morse code written on it. Hopefully, he didn't throw it away, they didn't really end up using it.

“T-I-M-E.” Iskall said letting go of Scar’s hand. Eh?

  
  


“Why do  _ you _ know morse, Iskall?” Scar asked shoving his hands in his pockets to not hear the sound anymore.

  
  
“Oh you know, friends.” He replied, shrugging slightly and putting his hands back into his pockets. “I’m guessing this has something to do with the magic problem child, is it making you spam “ _ time _ ”?”

“I guess…” Scar murmured looking back up at the giant crystal. 

“Any idea why?”

Scar nodded. There was one thing that came to his mind. He didn't really know why or how whoever was on the other side of the crystal knew about it. Still, it was worth seeing if something could be done with it. 

He glanced at the crystal one last time before walking over to the others that were still talking near the mushroom. Grian and Mumbo were discussing something about messages not being replied now. 

"These two sound like annoying lovebirds don't they?" Stress commented before getting distracted by Iskall waving at her and quickly running past Scar to go meet him. 

Scar looked at Grian and Mumbo, he was unsure if the argument was gonna continue for long so he just decided to literally jump between them.

"Hey Mumbo, could you help me with something real quick?" He asked, grabbing the tall man's arm. 

Mumbo raised an eyebrow. "Sure, what do you need?"

Scar heard a tiny whine in protest coming from Grian as he pulled Mumbo away.

"I need you to open the vault for me, I lost the key." 

\---

  
  


Breaking open the K.G.O.O.M.R. wasn't that difficult for Mumbo, not that he enjoyed it but he had already done it a few times. Scar really needed to find that key at some point. 

Nevertheless, as soon as the iron door on the floor opened Scar knelt down next to the first chest of the three. 

Grian peeked in from behind Mumbo that pushed him slightly away from the vault.

"Hey, don't look at me like that! I'm not gonna touch the doors, I'm just curious!" He said with a fake offended tone. 

Scar chucked, It's true the vault was full of doors mostly, but there was one other thing he deemed important enough to have to stay in it.

Well, not really important, more of a work in progress. An unstable work in progress. 

He opened the chest and pulled out a shiny orange gem.

To the other hermits, it might have looked like just another of his crystals but this one was different.

Using the crystals to channel healing properties was a thing, using them to play with time was another. 

It was unstable, complicated, and honestly not that worth messing with, Scar had started experimenting with it just to test his abilities, to see what he could and couldn't do. 

He managed to stop a few things in time; A plant that never withers away, an arrow stuck in mid-air forever. He brought some things back and forth, making tools rust away in a few minutes or go back to being brand new in the same amount of time. 

It was exciting at first; then he had a tiny  _ accident _ with a bird that flew a bit too close when he was practicing and decided to stop working with the crystal.

Until now, probably. 

He made the gem twirl around in his hand a few times, the lights in the room hitting it and projecting colored shards around him. 

He could feel the stone's powers, not that he'd forgotten how it felt to experiment with it. It would be difficult to forget how that much power running through your veins felt. It was a bit like Vex magic, but without having to borrow it from the fey. Being in complete control of something like that was more dangerous but more rewarding. 

If he thought about it this little gem  _ could _ technically be stronger than the giant crystal. 

He could… He could turn time back on the crystal, bringing it back to being simple  _ dust _ . 

But could he really risk trying that? 

Scar stared at the gem for a few seconds before putting it in his pocket. The wound on his hand burned slightly, reminding him to be careful. 

"Thank you for the door, Mumbo." Scar said smiling, before climbing the ladder up to the exit. 

"You're welcome." The redstoner replied behind Scar. 

"Grian put that door  _ down _ ." He heard him say as he left the room where the vault was. They followed him soon after. 

He walked over to the lakeshore and saw that now Iskall and Stress had joined the others under the crystal and that Tango was not on the monolith anymore, he was on ground level with everyone. He was gesticulating energetically while explaining something to everyone else, Zedaph was behind him mimicking the movements with a bit too much accuracy to be the first time he did it. 

Scar quietly ran his fingers on the time gem, he wasn't tapping anymore now that he thought about it. 

He didn't know if he could feel relieved about it.

With a jump and a little push of his elytra he almost got to the island, he still got his feet wet by missing by a few blocks but using a rocket would have probably made him collide with someone. The thing that Grian does less than half a second later, headbutting Joe off the island and into the water. He apologizes quickly trying to get the other hermit back on his feet. 

“And here I thought nothing could hurt as much as Cleo’s punches.” Joe gasped, hugging his stomach where Grian had impacted. 

“Grian is more dangerous than anything else here right now.” Impulse said with a grin. 

“Careful Impulse, I got more rockets.”

"This creeper farm gives him too much power Scar! Too many rockets he can get his hands on, maybe the crystal was trying to save us all along!" Zedaph gasped with an over-dramatic tone placing the back of his hand on his forehead in an exaggerated gesture. 

Scar wished he could laugh with the others at that but all he could think of right now was how much that magic crystal was starting to weigh in his pocket.

"So, anyway--" Tango started saying while rubbing the back of his neck "I was saying to the others that I don't  _ think _ I can do anything right now. Maybe if I manage to get Xisuma together we can find something but on my own, I really don't know."

Scar nodded, of course, it couldn't be easy. "It's okay” He reassured Tango. 

“I think I might have a solution," he fidgeted with the fabric of his sleeve "But honestly don't know if it's a good idea, or if it's worth trying."

"Well, if it's a horrible idea we will definitely warn you about it," Joe said, still slightly bent down for the pain of the impact with Grian. 

"Okay, so… I could try using this." Scar showed the small orange gem to his friends, leaving it on his open palm."This crystal is special, I can use it to control  _ time  _ a little _.  _ I was thinking I could try using it to make the crystal go back to before it was... Uhm, like this?" 

There was an excruciatingly long silence. 

"I'm sorry, did you just say you can control  _ time???  _ " Tango asked. 

"Kinda? I can't go back in time myself, I think, but I can change the effect of time on objects, make things older or newer." 

"Does it work on people too? Could ya turn someone into a baby?" Stress asked leaning a bit closer to look at the crystal. 

Scar closed his hand on the crystal nervously making Stress pout. "Definitely on birds" 

"Oh, I guess Grian wasn't the only reason why I wasn't finding any parrots," Mumbo murmured. 

"Didn't you find the double-sized parrot?" Iskall asked grinning. Mumbo chuckled nervously. 

"Anyway, what do you guys think of my idea?" Scar asked, holding tightly the gem. 

There was another moment of silence before Impulse spoke up. 

"You were the one preaching with Doc about the dangers of messing with time last season. I think you know about the risks of using this thing better than any of us." He said. 

"Also, didn't that crystal already hurt you for trying something like this?" Grian asked, gesturing to Scar's bandaged hand. "What if it does it again, and you end up being the one that gets rewind, who knows what would that cause!" 

Scar frowned. The thought of becoming suddenly younger wasn't that fun, especially since he didn't know if that would regard only his body or if his mind would be affected as well. 

"You should also think about from  _ where _ you got the idea of using that thing, Scar," Iskall added, leaving the others except for Scar slightly confused. 

Scar signed and looked at the gem in the palm of his hand.

"I think you already know it's not a good idea," Joe said, putting his hand on Scar's shoulder. "We can find a different solution that doesn't require using that." 

Scar was silent for a moment then nodded.

  
  


“You’re right, I think I’ll go put it back in the vault-" A single tiny green shard fell at his feet. Suddenly he felt his blood run cold, he blinked and looked up. 

A cracking noise filled the jungle. 

  
  
  



End file.
